Visitors to the picturesque historic town of Visegrad in eastern Bosnia are greeted with a less pleasant sight: a giant floating garbage dump washed by the turquoise waters of the Drina River Valley. Tonnes of floating garbage, mostly plastic bottles, threaten the local economy based on tourism, and there are fears about the impact on people's health when the garbage is incinerated.
The Trina River runs through Montenegro, Serbia and Bosnia, where those responsible for the Visegrád hydroelectric power station built an improvised barrier about 20 years ago, using old oil drums deep in the river to protect the dam from debris carried by the river. .
“There are about 5000 cubic meters of different types of waste,” said Dejan Furtula from the Eco Center Visegrad, pointing to the garbage barrier. “It comes from everywhere and unfortunately this scene repeats itself every year.”
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Furtula said the waste, which includes household items, is transported from Trina's upstream tributaries, where rising water levels after heavy rain or snow wash debris into the river from nearby waste disposal sites.
“You can find everything you can imagine in the Trina River… dead animals, medical waste, car parts,” Furtula said. “We are all one species Territorial waste deposits, because these wastes were not produced by the citizens of Visegrad, but by the inhabitants of the cities.”
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The toxic waste threatens the river's delicate ecosystem, and when it's burned, it threatens the air that Visegrad's citizens and visitors must breathe.
“It's a big disaster and a shame for all of us, we're giving a bad image to the world,” Furtula said, adding that ecologists suspect the river is also polluted. Heavy metals Also a full water analysis will be done this year.
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Owners and staff of hotels and restaurants in Visegrád, famous for its Ottoman-era bridge made famous by Yugoslav Nobel laureate for literature Ivo Andrić, complain that the litter is harming tourism.
“Tourists make negative comments about the landfill in Trina – it affects both tourism and the people who live here,” said Dijana Rajic, head of reception at Andrichev Konak Hotel.
Contacted by Reuters, responses could not be obtained from the Vyskrad hydropower plant because it was on vacation.